tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight a conversation with oscar and grammy winning film composer hans zimmer. his list of credits includes the music for films as varied as the year's "12nd this years a slave". he has introduced the integration of electronic sound with traditional orchestral sounds. we're glad you have joined us. a conversation with hans zimmer, coming up right now.

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: the contribution of a movie's core to its dramatic power is often underestimated by the public, but not by the filmmakers themselves, who know only too well that a great score can help to make or break a movie's impact on an audience. one of the most sought-after composers today is oscar and grammy winner hans zimmer.

his breakthrough score going back to 1988 with rain man. he has scored movies as diverse as the line king, and this year's "12 years a slave"." we will start tonight's conversation by taking a look at some scenes from "12 years a slave". >> i want to live. >> i did as instructed. if there something wrong, it's wrong with the instruction. know what it's like to be the object of his lash. tavis: let me jump right in. tell me how one approaches goring a project like "12 years a slave". >> with great trepidation and humility. it is an enormous subject.

i came here in 1990. feel there is a part of the conversation that never quite happens, that never got finished. it just seems like here was a chance to tell a story that is a true story of this great man and see it sort of from our , to present something to america that maybe america doesn't get to look at quite as easily as that. a lot of responsibility came with it. tell. story we needed to we felt compelled, we had to tell the story. creatively, when steve mcqueen, your director, cause you and it shows you the first cut --

>> stephen i have talked about working together for years now. he just phoned me one day and said what are you doing at 9:30 tomorrow morning? in front of this movie without really telling me what i was going to view. seeing this movie at 9:30 in the morning certainly colors your day in a certain way. tavis: better than seeing it at 9:30 at night. it keeps you up all night. >> i come from the sort of movies. calledst movie i did was "a world apart," which was about apartheid in africa. hollywoodave blockbuster finances, are you going to do it? of course i'm going to do it. he is a very compelling man. he is a great artist. tavis: tell me about your

process. when you are sitting and watching this film with the director, you obviously have an inkling that he wants you to do something with him on this. does the creative process start to gestate while you are watching it? i'm just trying to get a sense of where this genius comes to the fore. >> i don't think there's genius involved in this. is with one, the genius the performance itself, it is with the story it tells. quite honestly, i was sitting there thinking how can i be is translucent and as transparent as possible and not get in the way of the actors? then it turned into many, many withrsations with these -- steve. nothing happened for the longest time while i worried about it. -- weand i talked about never really talked about the movie. we talked around the movie. slavery in the

modern world a lot. and then suddenly there was this sort of moment where i sort of had an idea, i felt i knew what i wanted to do. i wrote something pretty quickly, and steve came in the next day and i played it for him. he goes ok, that's it. let's do that. honestly, a lot of the things i experienced time and time again, when you're dealing with very serious subjects, the only way you get through them is if you have a team around you of friends. so it really was just like hanging out with friends. lots of joking, because otherwise you can't get through a day watching the scenes.

movie john rishton have become clichés. you get a sad movie or a happy movie. -- movie genres have become clichés. you have to experience something. having experienced something, you want to talk about it. i just thought that is important. tavis: describe to me what i i'm sure people who have seen this movie already, as we head toward the academy season, all the buzz on the films, i know what i heard, i know what i felt when i saw it. musically, tell me what you did to me. what was i listening to? >> somewhere in these conversations with steve, he said you know, i am making a movie about love. so however brutal the subject

matter is, at the end of the day , this is a man who needs to come home to his children. he needs to come home to his wife. , anda movie about love ultimately it's a movie about loving each other. so the music is actually about love. i sort of stuck to that, doggedly stuck to the idea that it had to be about that. plus you get expiration -- inspiration from -- every frame is a painting. again, there is a translucency to the colors that he uses. the actors themselves are so articulate and so brilliant. and then there was this other thing which everyone on the set experienced. i wasn't there, but everybody

sort of told me at one time or the other what it was like. they read the book, they read the screenplay, and they went to louisiana and they shot on these plantations, and the trees surrounding them, the trees that had been there for hundreds of years and they were the witnesses to what really had gone on. it was a very different experience. it was real, it wasn't make- believe. regard thisu would soundtrack as they love theme? >> of course it is a period pie ce. the only person who could step out of it and not get caught in it with me. the music is not period music. it is not of our time now. was, i would be

this little door that could be opened into the now, to let that conversation start happening, and hopefully not get caught in it. humble.c is small, it's violinist from virginia -- there is another great musician. like steve mcqueen was started like part of the band -- sort of like part of the band, making music the way music is supposed to be played, it is organic. it is a conversation we were having. tavis: i want to circle back to where the conversation began, with you confessing there was something a little bit unique and different about what you bring to the table. in your words, you are a

foreigner. you moved here in 1990. give me some sense of what that has to do with the way you approach your work, with the way you approach these opportunities. .ou came here in 1990 you're the toast of the town when it comes to doing scores. i'm trying to connect that experience you bring as a foreigner to what you are doing today. >> i will give you a perfect example. is an englishman, and myself, we were at the grand canyon during that scene. we are looking at the grand canyon and we think this is the most amazing thing ever. there is a family not far away with their kids and the kids are going, can we go home now, dad? this is the grand canyon. to us, america is a magical place. i think my job, or the job of us european filmmakers is to just hold up america to americans and present it to you in a new way. man," it is a road

movie, and you see all of this amazing america. -- what ias all wanted to say is, look at your country, it is magnificent. look at the side of the road, just put a spotlight on it. it really does help when you come in with fresh eyes and then present it that way. tavis: i am laughing on the inside. this all happens to a guy who took piano lessons for two we eks? i was in there for years, banging away, and you get to be the winner of every award in town.

what happened? >> you should have met my piano teacher, you would have stopped, too. [laughter] i was always banging around on the piano. i took refuge in music. my father died when i was very young. one place of refuge was the piano. then my mother said, do you want to start piano lessons? as a six-year-old, you misunderstand what that means. i had all this music inside me, and i thought this guy was going to show me how to get it out, as opposed to doing acrobatic exercises. i wasn't interested in playing other peoples music. wn.anted to play my o luckily, after two weeks, he went to my mother said it -- and said it is either him or me, and luckily she made the right choice. atkily, i got involved

school, i was always playing with other people. that was the thing we were doing with steve mcqueen. this idea that we just brought our instruments out, and we just reacted to the picture. pulling the director into the band, in a way. it doesn't matter if he can play an instrument or not. if you have been moved, you are still a part of the process. i suppose i never had to grow up. explore littleo bit further, if i might, this you inof music being for the aftermath of your father's death, place of refuge. i know that for many of us, music is that place, and it is

pregnant with the kind of power that no other art form has to soothe and to heal. it is sort of a balm. give me some sense of how music became a refuge for you. lee, here i was just a kid whose father just died, and my mother was not only heartbroken, but she was desperate, panic stricken, how are we going to get through life? thaty quickly figured out the only thing that put a smile on her face was me playing the piano. so suddenly i am a performer, and starting to get that. many years later, i have a daughter, she was six at the time.

i could never take her to the movie because none of my movies were suitable for six euros. then there was the lion king. i thought i want to do it because i want to take my kid to the premiere, for all the wrong reasons. now i'm sitting in front of this cartoon and i realize the story really is about a son losing his father. and for the first time it forced me into dealing with it. all that stuff i had shut away. king" became this requiem that i wrote for my father. luckily, no one sort of knew at but it is a pretty heavy piece of music. i was working with this friend of mine from south africa who is an amazing south african singer.

i love the idea of always being a foreigner. there is this thing where people , ing the music together don't quite do that. the culturesn collide in something new comes out of it. i think i still do this to this day. having the great opportunity on a daily basis to sit in front of a blank page is terrifying and at the same time, really exciting. something you finish you start with a blank page, you know nothing. try to tell the story, follow the story, stick with the story. talk with your direct your, and somehow the notes will come. tavis: we are just days away from the state funeral of nelson

mandela. you mentioned south africa. read thati think i you actually went to south africa to do some research before you did the score. point, ily, by that had a police record in south africa because i had done to anti-apartheid movies. to make aending record when i was really working on yet another movie against the regime. meetinghis ridiculous where two weeks before the general election, there was a civil war going on in south africa. we had this meeting about who was going to take over the score when i was going to be killed when i was going to go to south africa. finally somebody said hans, you

are not going. i was going, of course i'm going. it never occurred to me, you get so involved in you fall so in love with what you are doing with the music. i would have gone. i would have been thrown in prison, at the very least. go and i sentt to my friend. it became this really .nteresting being the studio became this refuge. here you have sessions that start at 10:00 in the morning, three hour sessions, etc. you did not want to leave. at 11:00, 12:00 at night, people are still staying, because once , they were back.

maybe it is just me imagining, but i can hear it in their voices, i can hear the joy, i can hear the passion, i can hear all that stuff. it was a very special time. family.iends with this i never met nelson mandela, but i always thought it was amazing to see these people who had dedicated their lives to freeing their country, actually see this dream come true. you hear so many people, our ,olomon in "12 years a slave" he never saw the fulfillment of his dream. the tragedy is we don't know what happened to him. he just disappeared. tavis: as i recall, mandela

eulogized him. raiseher reason why i nelson mandela is we are just days away from his state funeral. your story about the lion king underscores for me what i think i have heard you express in a variety of ways already, that it is important for you, i sense, to find your way to the humanity in the story, whether it is to lion king or "12 years a slave", before you begin your process? >> it's the only thing we have. maybe i picked up on steve's words, this is a movie about love. i want everything to be about love, and to make a connection. we live in this day of the internet, so a lot of information is floating around really fast.

a piece of my music comes out, and i see people writing about it on the internet, as if i'm having a conversation with them. we have never met, but somehow my music is communicating something to these people. very often, it really makes me feel something. what better job could there be in the world than touching somebody's heart? you are actually getting under their skin, in one way or another. tavis: is that the greatest joy for you in your work? >> absolutely. there was another anti-apartheid g."e, "the power of one or to go to russia russia sort its problems out, economic problems, whatever. they were asked, why are you going?

one man said, did you ever hear the music to "the power of one?" something, it moved something ever so slightly. i had a very, very smart man come to me recently. he wanted to meet me, and he was very much part of the egyptian spring, the uprising. i said, why do you want to meet me? he said i had a choice, i was i knew if iairo and went back to cairo, i would be arrested and probably tortured. beenasy choice would have to leave, but i knew i had to finish it. i just turned it up really loud

and hit the gas and went back in. . had that piece on a loop sometimes it's not the words that can make the difference. sometimes the music can motivate people into doing something. tavis: there is no doubt about that, and you helped motivate a lot of people through the years and you do a lot of good work with your music. the latest piece of music from hans zimmer is the score for "12 years a slave". i suspect you will hear his name with that movie as we head into the award season in this town. .ongratulations in advance thanks for coming, good to have you on. that is our show for tonight. thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith. >> dad, we are pals, right?

>> right. >> we will always be together, right? >> let me tell you something my father told me. look at the stars. lookreat kings of the past down on us from those stars. >> really? >> yes. so whenever you feel alone, just remember that those kings will always be there to guide you, and so will i. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with best-selling author amy tan. then we will be joined by actor levar burton. that is next time. we will see you then.

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. >> be more. pbs.eme music ♪)

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